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hou Shalt Not Kill" 



or 



War is Wrong 




By E, E. WALL 
Ventura, CaL 



c/cT 





^9 iritubt^t 

MiV 31 1920 




REV. E. E. WALL 

Pastor, St. John's M. E. Church, South 

Ventura, California 




ST. JOHN'S METHODIST EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH, SOUTH 



Ventura 



California 



FOREWORD 



This booklet is the extension of the notes of a 
sermon preached when the ^^ World War" was at 
its height, August 11th, 1918. 

The purpose of this publication is to refute 
the German heresy of the loss of individuality 
and personal responsibility, to God and man, in 
the military mass; to refute the Mohammedan 
heresy of salvation by the sword ; to prove there 
is no conflict but harmony between the Old and 
New Testaments respecting the binding com- 
mandment : ^ ' Thou shalt not kill ' ' ; and to furnish 
a soul satisfying reason, to the Christian, for par- 
ticipation in the ^* World War." 



To Rev. J. R. Sawyer, my pastor when I re- 
sponded to God's call to preach the Gospel. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

The War, the World, and the Word. 

CHAPTER II. 

Sovereign Power. 

CHAPTER III. 
Why War Is Wrong. 

CHAPTER IV. 

America's Justification in Entering the 
World War. 

CHAPTER V. 
Conclusions. 



(All Rights Reserved.) 



''Thou Shalt Not Kiir or 
War is Wrong 



^'Tliou Shalt Not Kill.'^ (Exodus 20:13). 

On this morning, this holy Sabbath day, that 
part of time upon which God has fixed His claim 
and set His seal, we have met to worship God, the 
Father, Son and Holy Ghost. 

In preaching upon this text, at this time and 
mider existing conditions, I am not unmindful of 
the delicacy and difficulty of my undertaking. 
Yet the words of St. Paul are both a command 
and comfort to me : '' . . . praying that utter- 
ance may be given unto me, that 1 may open my 
mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the 
gospel.'' My Friends: I need your prayers that 
the Holy Spirit may be my guide into the truth, 
and that our ^ 'faith stand not in the wisdom of 
man but in the power of God. ' ' 

I have in my heart a message, wrought out 
in prayer, and meditation upon the word of God, 
prayer and meditation extending through the 
months of this war, a message born of the very 
travail of my soul. This experience has deepened 
my S}Tiipathy for President Wilson, a great and 
good man as I believe him to be. His relation- 



ships and thereby his responsibilities are multi- 
plied and extended far beyond my own and he 
must therefore have suffered more as he entered 
this Gethsemane seeking to know the truth that 
can make men free and to lead them into the light 
of the day-dawn of liberty, justice and fraternity. 
The whole world called to him, as a Moses, and 
from out the night of Prussian diabolism, that 
call became a wailing plea for him to strengthen 
with our virile nation Christian civilization's en- 
feebled hands and to save a cause hourly growing 
more hopeless. No less did future generations 
call for him, by reason of his individuality, na- 
tionality and position, to declare and define the 
doctrine of intentional democracy. But he must 
needs have heard another voice, that on Sinai and 
no less on Calvary, thundering in the ears and 
consciences of men: ^^Thou Shalt Not Kill.'' 
He heard, too, the speech, and song, and laughter 
of his peaceful people. Out of range of the dead- 
ly engines of death our people on the Eockies' 
heights did not see the war cloud, with baleful 
blight, shadowing France and Belgium. In our 
quiet valleys and upon the templed hills of the 
North and East, and along the sun-kissed slopes of 
the southland we were not deeply disturbed by 
the detonating thunders of the cataclysmic car- 
nage shaking half this world and churning the 
sea in its fury. President Wilson, through the 
vision of his vantage, understood that if Europe 
were to be saved from murder and suicide the 



task was ours, and the duty was his to inform us, 
and lead the way, yet he waited and watched and 
prayed, hence his ^^watchful-waiting," because 
he saw the scourge, the thorns, the cross, the tomb 
ahead for the people he loves and serves so well, 
— for the purchased possession of our peace, from 
the Prussian Empire, ntust needs be bought with 
the mintage of human blood. 

I have read the gospel story over and over 
and thought God 's revealed record through and 
through. I looked upon the successive stages of 
humanity's tragic effort to find its true bearings 
in earth and heaven, through time and eternity. 
In the dawning light of J^evelation's day I could 
read the flaming words, written upon the clouds 
of smoke about Sinai: ^'Thou Shalt Not Kill," 
yet I heard the dying groans of the prophets of 
Baal as men of faith in God put them to the 
sword. I followed Joshua, as he crossed the Jor- 
dan, and crossing build Jehovah 's altar there, and 
from that altar go with fire and sword to destroy 
the inhabitants and substance of Caanan, and 
take the land. The power of the arm of God in 
battle I witnessed, in Abraham, Joshua, Gideon, 
David and a valiant host too numerous to name. 
His angels likewise brought death to the inno- 
cents of the homes and herds of Egypt, and in 
vaded, with destroying hand, the camp of Sen- 
nacherib encompassing the praying people of God 
within Jerusalem's walls. I found the sacred 
record red with human blood, yet I see that it is 



not God but man who thus mars the beauty of the 
page of Holy Writ. The sins of man stain the 
faithful record with fratricidal blood. 

Turning to the new Testament, praying as I 
read, in my perplexity pondering its deep truths, 
but with God's promises like sunbeams in my 
mind: ^^Ask and it shall be given you, seek and 
ye shall find,'' '' Blessed are they which do hun- 
ger and thirst after righteousness for they shall 
be filled," *^If any of you lack wisdom, let him 
ask of God, . . . and it shall be given him," 
^^ ... the Spirit of truth . . . will guide 
you into all truth. ' ' I knew these other words were 
also true for Jesus Christ, my Saviour, the Son of 
God, is their author : "Ye have heard that it hath 
been said of old time, thou shalt not kill . . . 
but I say unto you that whosoever is angry witii 
his brother without a cause shall be in danger of 
the judgment." "Ye have heard that it hath 
been said. Thou shalt love thy neighlbor and hate 
thine enem/y, but I say unto you, love your ene- 
mies, bless them that curse you, do good to them 
that hate you and pray for them which despitef ully 
use you and persecute you; that ye may be the 
children of your Father who is in heaven; for He 
m^aketh His sun to shine on the evil and on the 
good and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust" 
(Matt. 5:3-5). "My kingdom is not of this world: 
if my kingdom were of this world then would My 
servants fight that I should not be delivered to the 
Jews; but now is My kingdom not from hence." 



(Jno. 19:36). Here not only killing but its nnder 
lying motive — hate — is forbidden. I knew that be- 
tween truth and truth there could be no contra- 
diction. I believed with my life as the stake, that 
the Holy Bible, as my church accepts it, is the re- 
vealed truth of God and therefore these apparent 
contradictions between the Scriptures, Old and 
New, if correctly understood and interpreted 
would be found harmonious. To make my confu- 
sion more confounding the nations representing 
the highest exponents of Christian civilization, in 
the name of '^Tlie Prince of Peace'' who came to 
bring ^^ peace on earth" and ^'good will among 
men,'' with sword and bullet, bayonet and butt, 
with deadly darts from the sky, with juggernaut 
like tanks, and with destructive dreadnaughts of 
the deep were killing, killing, killing, millions of 
men and causing women and children to suffer 
and mourn. 

From my study and this pulpit I have gone 
among men to search and find out the truth con- 
cerning this matter, from their conversations, 
sermons and speeches. In the same quest I have 
turned to the columns of the secular and religious 
press, and have failed to find from these sources 
a soul satisfying explanation of this mystery, an 
explanation reconciling this apparent conflict be- 
tween the Old and New Testaments and consist- 
ent with the participation of my country, as one 
of the allies, in the world war. From personal 
association, press, pulpit and rostrum, with few 



exceptions, came to me, conversations, articles, 
sermons and speeches the predominant note of 
which was hate and kilL This I knew did violence 
to our text, to the "Golden Eule," and to that 
part of the ' ^ Sermon on the Mount ' ' which I have 
quoted. 1 knew likewise that my country could 
not find its justification for such action upon the 
ground of expediency or apparent human necessi- 
ty arising from any combination of human and 
earthly circumstances, for the commandment: 
'^Thou Shalt Not Kill,^' is an eternal truth and 
nothing inconsistent with it could ever justify 
disobedience to it. Truth is to be sought and 
known and not avoided, denied, or ignored. Such 
knowledge, sought and found, is light, where such 
ignorance is darkness. Spiritual things "are 
spiritually discerned. '^ "Out of the heart the 
mouth speaketh.'' Therefore out of the heart 
heated over the fires of hate no such refined knowl- 
edge can proceed, and he who preaches a ' ' gospel 
of hate ' ' is not a safe spiritual guide. 

I am not unmindful of the fact that to the 
person who has not been quickened by the Spirit 
of God into the new life in Christ, revenge for 
wrongs done by the enemy may be sufficient 
ground to kill the Kaiser and all his subjects, and 
hate aroused by the heinous deeds of the Hun may 
furnish him a justifying cause to participate in 
this carnival of human slaughter. Those who act 
upon impulse, apart from reason or conscience, 
see no need of asking WHY. But upon none of 



these grounds can the Christian violate this God- 
given law of life, ^'Thou Shalt Not Kill,'^ make 
null and void the ^^ Golden Rule,'' set at naught 
the ^'Sermon on the Mount," and ignore the di- 
vine prerogative: ^^ Vengeance is mine I will re- 
pay, saith the Lord." 

Upon the statute books of our states we find 
the provision: That man in defense of his life 
against attack when he is where he has a legal 
right to be and engaged in what he has a legal 
right to do may repel force with force even to the 
extent of taking the life of his adversary. Seek- 
ing our country's justification, some have em- 
ployed this legal doctrine of self defense, making 
Germany the criminal assailant and the Allies the 
defenders of their lives. This is sound legal doc- 
trine and may be here correctly applied, but this 
is but a man-made law justifying the taking of 
human life and cannot serve our present purpose 
in reconciling war with this law of God set forth 
in this unequivocal and eternal commandment: 
'' Thou Shalt Not KilL" 

Others have cited the wars that Joshua and 
Gideon waged under Jehovah's direction. But 
the justification of my country's course in this 
v/ar cannot lie in such precedent, for Joshua and 
Gideon acted under Jehovah's command. Uni- 
versal sovereignty belongs to God. To give, to 
withhold, to take life, is His exclusive prerogative 
and man cannot with immunity usurp the pre- 
rogatives of God. Israel, then, acted through a 



theocratic government in which God exercised su- 
preme and immediate temporal sovereignty. That 
government served the divine purpose and there 
IS none such on the earth to-day. God is still none 
the less supreme in His sovereignty but political 
groups exercise under Him, a delegated authority, 
by application of principles set forth in the ful- 
filled law and prophesies of God, in Jesus Christ 
our Saviour. There are no more prophets, as of 
old, for ^Hliere is no more open vision,'^ only the 
written Word and the Holy Spirit to guide. God 
has given the law for time and eternity. It is for 
man, as God's Spirit enlightens him, to under- 
stand, interpret, and apply it in terms of life. In 
this he is not without prayer, the key to the ex- 
haustless riches of God's grace and truth. No 
man-made law can rightfully or effectively con- 
travene this organic law of the universe. Under 
this law all power in heaven and earth belongs to 
God, to execute His will and when this power is 
exercised apart from His authority the usurpa- 
tion is sin, issuing often in painful temporal con- 
sequences, and if unforgiven, inevitably in ulti" 
mate eternal punishment. 

I take the ground that every Christian must 
find, in this fulfilled law of God in Christ, the 
principles for his action under present conditions 
and in every relationship in life. Otherwise Chris- 
tianity would be a failure, for Christianity is the 
whole life lived by faith in the Son of God. 

I assert, as I have done in your hearing be- 

10 



fore, that every man must obey the law of his 
country, for to do otherwise is to disobey God. 
But I do not wish to convey the idea, in case the 
law itself be at fault, that servile silence is the 
righteous attitude, but I assert the contrary. The 
remedy, however, lies in correction and not in vio- 
lation. I hold that all unwise legislation as well 
as all abuse and misuse of power, in a republic, 
such as the United States of America, permit of 
legal correction. This is one of the cardinal vir- 
tues and safeguards of a government of law, of, 
by, and for the people. Bloody revolution, or civil 
war, under such a form and system of government 
is not impossible but can never be justified. Vio- 
lent opposition to such constituted authority is, 
theoretically at least, opposition to one's own will 
and welfare and therein an admission of unfit- 
ness for self government. By patient forbearance 
(which is often needful for discipline and for edu- 
cational!' process prerequisite for self-g'oveming 
capacity and the right use of the knowledge thus 
acquired under self control of this discipline), all 
vicious or unwise laws may be amended or re- 
pealed. Any one who attempts to distort the 
meaning of and misapply the law of the land to 
serve a present purpose, whatever the expediency, 
evinces a moral turpitude which degrades his intel- 
ligence and makes a confession of the weakness 
of the cause he espouses. Any like attempt 
through interpretative jugglery of the Scriptures, 
which is a higher law than of man's making, is 



wicked, blasphemous, and ultimately destructive. 
Regardless of the issue, and though my life were 
in the balance, I would not intentionally or care- 
lessly mis-state the meaning of this law of God, 
contained in the Holy Bible, because I both love 
and fear God and value the souls of men above all 
earthly considerations. I cannot subscribe to the 
sharp practice method to make the Scriptures fit 
the case in hand even though that case may be 
the present war, and those who have so trans- 
gressed and misguided others, I pray God ' ' lay not 
this sin to their charge'' beyond forgiveness, for 
they may have done it ^ ' ignorantly through unbe- 
lief. " In a matter of such measureless magnitude 
and incalculable importance as the conditions and 
issues of this world war no man is justified in in- 
dulgence in dogmatic assertions grounded upon 
isolated and inapplicable Scripture quotations. 
For a cause to be right it must be supported by the 
whole Scripture. If the finite mind of man pos- 
sessed sufficient perception and understanding, 
which it may under spiritual illumination, no just 
cause would lack consistent Scriptural support. 
There are many things stated in God's "Word in 
which, thus far, there may have arisen no need 
for such apprehension and undertaking on our 
part, Scriptural enlightenment is never afforded 
for the satisfaction of speculative curiosity but to 
provide us light to '^do justly, to love mercy and to 
walk humblj^ with God." 



12 



The Light at Last. 
Justification for participation in this world 
war requires Scriptural sanction and a sanction 
without Scriptural conflict. Those who neither 
desire nor demand it nevertheless need such jus- 
tification. To the Christian or sinner who hun- 
gers and thirsts for this knowledge and assur- 
ance, so needful for civilian and soldier, who seeks 
it in God's Word, in prayer, the Holy Spirit will 
perform the divine function for and in such a 
one of supplying that gracious possession. Thus 
seeking and searching I have found peace of 
mind and rest for my soul in this vital matter. I 
have heard men in the pulpit and on the street ex- 
tol this war as right without giving a real Scrip- 
tural reason, and glorifying it as the gateway to 
eternal life. Any heathen worshiper at Ma- 
homet's shrine believes and can do as much. But 
mere assertions do not produce deepest convic- 
tion. In matters so vital to us, in two worlds, 
we wish to know the grounds, the reason, the 
authority. For my part I have never doubted 
either it was wrong for my country to join the 
Allies, or that in my Bible I could find a soul sat- 
isfying sanction not inconsistent with the com- 
mandment: ^'Thou Shalt Not Kill,'' paradoxical 
as the conviction and this conclusion may appear 
to many. In reading Paul's Epistle to the Bo- 
mans the cloud of this mystery dissolved before 
the light of divine truth in which this inspired 
apostle wrote that letter to Christians among a 

13 



pagan people. The apparent conflict between the 
Old and New Testaments disappeared and I be- 
lieve I see the bearing of the whole Word of God on 
this matter, the concord, harmony, and unity 
vfhich ever prevail in all God's laws, and 
thoughts, and ways needful for man to know for 
a Christlike expression of his whole life. 

CHAPTEE II. 
Sovereign Power. 

'^Thou Shalt Not Kill." 

War that is inconsistent with this command- 
ment is wrong. But this commandment and war 
seem mutually exclusive. Yet when we see in the 
governments of nations God's Sovereignty and in 
war His just judgment upon evil, which judg- 
ment like the commandment is divinely used for 
ultimate good, the inconsistency disappears. 

I am glad that Saul of Tarsus was a lawyer 
and that God converted him into St. Paul, the di- 
vinely inspired apostle, to write these words: 
'^Let every soul be subject unto the higher pow- 
ers, for there is no power but of God : The powers 
that be are ordained of God, therefore he that re- 
sisteth the power, withstandeth the ordinance of 
God: and they that withstand shall receive to 
themselves judgment. For rulers are not a ter- 
ror to the good work but to the evil. And would- 
est thou have no fear of the power? Do that 
which is good and thou shalt have praise from 

14 



the same: for lie is a minister of God to tliee for 
good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; 
for he beareth not the sword in vain ; for he is the 
minister of God, a revenger to execute w^rath 
upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must 
needs be in subjugation not only because of the 
wrath, but also for conscience sake. For this 
cause ye pay tribute (taxes) also; for they are 
ministers of God's service, attending continually 
upon this very thing. Eender to all their dues; 
tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom 
custom ; fear to whom fear ; honor to whom honor. ' ' 
(Eom. 13:1-7). 

^^All power in heaven and earth'' belong to 
Jesus Christ, yet he was born when his mother 
was in Bethlehem to pay tax to Caesar. He also 
paid tribute into the treasury under a despicable 
despotism. Not once did he violate the law of the 
state, nor revile officers of state, nor advocate the 
destruction of the Eoman autocracy. 

All norm.al rational beings acknowledge the 
supreme and universal sovereignty of God and 
the wisdom and beneficence of His government. 
In so doing we accept the authority of ''the high- 
er powers" as the right use of authority delegated 
by Him to them. Herein we subscribe to the 
Scriptural claim that all civil government is or- 
dained of God. The necessity arose from man's 
disobedience to God Himself and all earthly hu- 
man government is primarily and ultimately for 
restraint of evil and promotion of good. In this 

15 



God registers His condemnation of evil and His 
approval of good and so does every good citizen. 

In the Old Testament we have observed the 
record of God sending and leading His people, the 
Jews, in battle slaying thousands and tens of 
thousands but there the battle is always against 
evil. We witness the defeat of Israel's hosts but 
we find in those defeats God's disapproval of the 
evil and the encouragement of the good in His 
people, a people chosen for our ultimate earthly 
and heavenly good in Christ. God instituted 
these temporal rulerships and ordained their 
strength for His holy purposes, out of which 
democratic government has been evolved as the 
Christian expression of necessary restraint of evil 
and of the proraotion of '^the greatest good to 
the greatest number." Under theocracy, God's 
direct government of the Israelites, when sin so 
possessed the lives of men and manifested itself 
in crimes, and cruelty to humanity — ^^ man's in- 
humanity to man ' ' that made its ^ ^ countless thous- 
ands mourn" — God sent the sword in the hand of 
the ^^ revenger to execute His wrath" upon these 
evil doers." 

The fall of monarchs with their crowns should 
not be disconcerting to Christians for kings were 
the choice of man and not of God. Jesus Christ 
as man exalted individuals into universal equali- 
ty and in so doing chartered dem^ocracy as de- 
signed by Him in man's creation. Created in the 
image of God man was wholly good and free. In 

16 



this design there is no place in God's purpose for 
human inequalities as expressed in autocracy. 

"God is the same yesterday, to-day and for- 
ever. "In the fulfillment of the Word, that '^ en- 
dure th forever, " ' ' that there is no power but of 
God, and that he requires of all mien everywhere 
subjection to the higher powers, ' ' be mindful, and 
beware. ". . .if thou do that which is evil be 
afraid for he (governmental agency, the sheriff, 
the soldier) beareth not the sword in vain." The 
sheriff may be a vile sinner in the sight of God, so 
the soldier may be, but as the expression of ex- 
ecutive authority of constituted government, ' ' the 
powers that be," ''ordained of God," "he is the 
minister (magistrate) of God." 

Not only individuals are held accountable to 
God for the right use, or abuse of the power, but 
God likewise holds "the powers that be," men in 
representative capacity, accountable not only as 
individuals but as "ministers of God." (Officers, 
directors and stockholders of corporations would 
do well to heed this truth that they never lose their 
individual identity and personal responsibility, 
any more than a governmental official, in the sight 
of God). Jesus Christ saw and reproved the 
abuse and misuse of power, divinely delegated, 
when He said to Pontius Pilate: "Thou couldest 
have no power at all against me except it were 
given thee from above." Spiritual power is su- 
perior to physical force and is never unavailable 
except thrbugh unbelief. This truth was illus- 

17 



trated when Jesus reproved Peter for smiting 
Malcus witli the sword on the occasion of His be- 
trayal: "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray 
to my Father, and He shall presently give me 
more than twelve legions of angels. ' ' But God is 
a just God and in Christ assumed full responsibil- 
ity for the weakness of man he made and yet 
proved the power of man, through faith in God, 
to do the will of God on earth. As man, Jesus 
could not invoke this divine aid, for under execu- 
tion of this unjust judgment He would ransom 
man's lost estate of eternal riches in everlasting 
life, thus ^^ bringing life and immortality to 
light. ' ' Sin had brought its doom of death to 
man, through his own wilful act of disobedience 
to God, though fully able to obey. Man was a 
suicide, dead in sin, of his free commission. As 
St. Paul expresses it: ^^The wages of sin is 
death. ' ' No dead man can restore himself to life. 
God 's contract with man was based upon the con- 
dition of man's obedience. Man accepted all the 
benefits of God's love and goodness and refused 
to discharge his obligations of obedience. By this 
act he forfeited life and all its benefits under this 
contract, or ^'covenant," and all right to all 
claims upon God for life. Therefore man was 
dead in sin, without power to recover his own life 
and without right of claim upon God for life, in 
whom, for whom, and to whom, is all life, and life 
and its tragedies cannot be otherwise successfully 
accounted for, or explained. Therefore if man were 

18 



to ^ ' live again, ' ' he could do so only by the grace 
and mercy of God, for man was hopelessly dead in 
sin and without any just claim on God. All praise 
to the infinite love, justice, mercy, and power of 
God! His love would not leave His most loved crea- 
ture lost. Yet His justice could not excuse this 
violation of His law. Justice requires the guilty to 
suffer the penalty imposed for the crime commit- 
ted. But this creature man, being dead, could 
not thus right the wrong, nor suffer to cancel his 
sin. Man, as man, was dead to God. Therefore, a 
living man, must suffer the penalty or man remain 
forever dead. A new man, receiving anew his 
life from God, must pay the penalty. All of 
God 's works were good, and are forever good, and 
this new man must necessarily be good, wholly 
good, or ''righteous." But for a newly created 
righteous man to suffer the penalty of the old un- 
righteous man would not be justice. There 
was no other alternative for man's salvation. So 
God, to be ''just and justifier," Himself, in Jesus 
Christ, became man and suffered as man, though 
not a sinner yet as a sinner, sin's penalty for all 
the sins of men, that God 's law might be vindicat- 
ed. His justice preserved in the purity of its in- 
tegrity, that God might prove His love as a Father, 
and that man might live again. Man was creat- 
ed in the image of God, and the only way he can 
be restored to that perfection is in this new cre- 
ation. This new creature he becomes by faith or 
belief, or trust, that God, in Jesus Christ, suf- 

19 



fered the penalty of eacli man's sin — death — 
even the ^4gnominous death'' on the cross of 
Calvary. By His suffering God is reconciled and 
we are redeemed. By our belief, that God, 
through His love for us exercised this creative 
power, suffered death in Jesus, and overcame 
the power of the devil in breaking the bonds of 
death, we overcome the permanent destruction of 
the body and escape eternal suffering of the 
spirit which can never die. Jesus submitted to 
the unrighteous judgrdent of Pontius Pilate and 
refrained from calling to his aid the legions of 
angels. This he did in fulfillment of the law and 
the prophesies and to prove his power to save, to 
save from eternal death even the dying thief with 
no chance to even restore the stolen goods, and 
with only time to repent and believe in the power 
of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to save the soul. 
This is the Gospel I believe and preach, which is 
the saving power of God available to every hu- 
man being who with repentant heart, believing 
mind and confessing lips comes to God through 
Christ. 

Man's physical strength is of God's creative 
pewer, yet it is perverted to crime, even the crime 
of killing Jesus Clirist, the Son of God. National 
strength is of God's sovereign power, yet history 
records, and the record is still in its making, the 
perversion of this power to oppression and de- 
struction. God holds individuals and nations ac- 
countable to Him for wrongs done. In the exer- 

20 



cise of this sovereign power governments declare 
war and require those who owe them allegiance 
to fight their battles. It is the duty of citizens 
and subjects, to obey. God will hold those to ac- 
count who ignorantly or intentionally improper- 
ly or wrongfully exercise this power, as he has in 
the case of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Saul, 
Herod, Caesar, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, 
and as He will the Kaiser. The ruins of their 
realms are temporal marks of divine reckoning 
for misused and abused sovereign power. 

The individual soldier in obeying his coun- 
try's call to arms bears no responsibility for his 
acts, as a soldier, in obedience to the command 
of a superior officer, for even Christ, as a man, 
must needs have been as a man ^ ^ subject unto the 
higher powers," as he testifies. But the soldier's 
identity is never so submerged in the military 
mass that he loses personal accountability to God. 
He must therefore be able to obey the official 
command to ^'fire" at the heart of the enemy, 
and at the same time obey the Lord's command: 
**Love your enemies." In obeying the com- 
mand, ^'Fire," he is respecting the divine pre- 
cept: ^^Let every soul be subject to higher pow- 
ers." In the act of firing, the responsibility for 
that act and its consequences rest upon the high- 
er powers — Presidents, Kings, Kaisers, Congress, 
Parliaments and Reichstags, nor is individual 
responsibility to God lost in the representative 
relationship of these ^^ powers that be." But the 

21 



command: ^^Love your enemies,'' is essentially 
personal and binding even in battle upon every 
soldier. 

The soldier, called to figlit his country's bat- 
tles, however patriotic he may deem himself to 
be, and regardless of the righteousness of the 
cause, who is actuated by the individual impulse 
of hate or motive of revenge, has failed to obey 
the command: ''Love your enemies," and has 
lost sight of his only justification in going to war, 
which is obedience to an authority ordained of 
God, and to destroy evil and produce good. The 
soldier who recognizes in his enemy, one who as 
he, is also bound by like compulsion and should 
be as he is, fighting for ultimate good, can fire un- 
der his superior's commnad without hate in his 
heart and without disobedience to the command- 
ment: ''Thou Shalt Not Kin." But if hate coil 
about his heart, burn in his eye, hiss in his breath, 
and vibrate in his muscles, he is a sinner before 
God. Let us turn from the soldier to the man out 
of whom by governmental metamorphosis this 
warlike entity has been made. Though through 
necessity of obedience to his superior officer's 
command, and without the necessity of hate in 
his heart, he be not a sinner in the sight of God 
for "killing" his fellow man in battle, yet his 
whole personality is not merged into the soldier. 
He is still a citizen, father, son, brother or hus- 
band, he is still the man he was before he put on 
the uniform and took up the weapons, and he goes 

22 



into battle that identical man, and goes the bond 
slave of sin, or enjoying the liberty of the for- 
giveness of sin by repentance therefor, faith in 
Jesus Christ, and with the unmistakable w^itness 
of the seal of God 's Spirit. Therefore if the man, 
in that soldier's uniform, facing the enemy in de" 
fence of outraged Belgium or bleeding France, 
be a liar, thief, adulterer, in short a sinner, who 
has never sought and seen God in Jesus Christ as 
his Saviour, he is guilty before God of that par- 
ticular sin. Though he dies a hero in human eyes, 
he dies a sinner in God's eyes and eternal punivsh- 
ment is the retributive justice he must meet. Do 
you question the righteousness, the justice, the 
mercy of this stern statement? It is as ster- 
ling as it may seem severe. Justice is always ex- 
act and uncompromising, yet not without mercy, 
and this statement stands the high test. For that 
soldier who slays his enemy in battle had no es- 
cape from the sin of the violated commandment, 
^^Thou Shalt Not Kill," except that God is too 
merciful to require him to obey the ^4iiger pow- 
ers" that He has ^'ordained," and to hold him re* 
sponsible for the acts necessitated by, or result- 
ing from, that obedience. And God is likewise 
too just to permit the soldier through obedience, 
to meet death, or end his ^'probation" without 
securing him against tlie consequences of meet; 
ing death while in his sins. Therefore through a 
decade or more before the boy became a man, and 
before the man became the soldier, and every mo- 

23 



ment since God has provided ^'a way of escape" 
for liim, by repentance for his sins, and faith in 
Jesus Christ as his Saviour. God is accessible to 
him by this simple plan of redemption without 
other aid than God's Holy Spirit and I doubt not 
that this has been the experience of many a boy 
^'over there," when neither priest nor preacher 
was near. Jesus Christ is the only way to God, 
the Father, and God has given the Holy Bible, the 
^^Word of Life," so man need not die, and the 
Light of the Holy Spirit as guide and witness 
that he may not plead the darkness, nor ignorance 
of the Way, and has sent his servants to teach 
and preach and lead and aid that all may under- 
stand all things needful for salvation. 



CHAPTEE III. 
4 Why War Is Wrong. 

^'Thou Shalt Not Kill." 

Ex. 20:13; Math. 5:43-8: 

Mar. 10:19; Rom. 13:9. 

This commandment lies at the very founda- 
tion of all right relationships between individuals 
and nations. 

To take a man's life is not wrong solely be- 
cause God has commanded: ^^Thou shalt not 
kill," but God has so commanded because it is 
wrong. It was wrong for Cain to kill Abel. The 
commandment was written in the human con- 

24 



ciousness of Adam and Ms progeny before it was 
inscribed upon the tables of stone on Sinai. 

In the light of the Scriptures the plots of dia- 
bolical design of the Prussian war lords are wrong, 
the dastardly deeds of the '' Central Powers'' are 
wrong, the Kaiser's unchristian ^'Kultur" is 
wrong, the hate of the Hun and to hate the Hun 
are wrong and to this extent war is wrong. To 
the soul conscious of God and aware of accounta- 
bility to Him, confronted with the commandment, 
'^Thou shalt not kill," pretense, excuse, or ex- 
pediency are not sufficient to justify giving up 
life or taking the life of another upon the battle- 
field. To such a person any attempt to justify 
war upon a philosophical basis leaves a doubt in 
the mind, a misgiving in the heart, and unrest of 
soul. In this light there is a conflict between the 
absolute sovereignty of God and compulsory 
obedience to the authority of the state. Even 
when the prosecution of this war is pitched upon 
the high plane of the preservation and protection 
of democratic government or of humanitarian mo- 
tives^ we are still confronted with the forbidding 
command of God: ''Thou shalt not kill," and the 
truth that Christ is the Prince of Peace and the 
precursor and power of peace on earth and good 
will among men, of which war is the antithesis. 

No survivor of submarine attack, or soldier 
who has stood in the bloody quagmire of the 
front trenches, if a norm.al human being, doubts 
that war is the work of the devil. Jesus Christ 

25 



is therefore the soldier's friend, for he came ^'(:o 
destroy the works of the devil.'' YVar pertains 
exclusively to this world and this friend of the 
soldier said : ^ ^ My kingdom is not of this world. ' ' 
War therefore can have no part in His Kingdom. 
His mission, life, character, precepts, and ascen- 
sion and session on high verify this truth. The 
disciple of Christ must seek a more satisfying 
source of knowledge, conviction, and assurance 
for the justfication of war than Old Testament 
precedent, that human example, than doctrines 
set out in statutes of states, force of circum- 
stances, human sympathies, than hate or revenge. 
In this, as in all else, to be right, he must seek 
first to know Grod's will. I know full well that 
some impetuous spirits will chafe under these 
words, but I beg of you to bear with me to the end 
for the good of the soul's salvation which is the 
only ultimate good in all of life. I well know to 
^^cuss the Kaiser," and '4iate the Hun" is pop- 
ular just now, but both are unchristian and no 
true Christian can afford to surrender principle for 
popularity nor to escape unpopularity. Invec- 
tives and execrations upon the *^ Beast of Berlin," 
the anathematizing of names such as the "Pots- 
dam-gang," the '4iellish Hohenzollerens, " is 
mere blast, lacking the projectile of soul-satisfy- 
ing truth. The nornial soul hungers and thirsts 
after righteousness. The soldier (and I emplo;/ 
this word to designate those of all branches of 
the service), who sails the submarine infested 

26 



deep, or who goes ^'over there'' to meet the Hun 
across the shell holes of ''no man's land," should 
feel the need, and has a right to demand, and in 
any event, should be provided a souhsatisfying 
and justifying reason for his course of action, at 
least for giving up his life. He is entitled to the 
truth. Superficial stuff in sermon, speech, and 
song may entertain and amuse some of the stay- 
at-homes and some of the boys on "training 
ships ' ' and in ' ' cantonments, ' ' but is utterly fails 
to meet the requirements of the normal soldier 
hourly facing death. Such should be prepared to 
die and he who is best prepared to die is best 
equipped to live his best. Such men at this point 
find that philosophical reasoning and patriotic 
fervor alone fails to satisfy. This is proof that 
nothing but Spiritual truth can meet the needs of 
the immortal soul. 

To my mind there is no greater sin than to 
conceal life's great realities, and God's eternal 
verities with ''camouflage" of distorted Scriptur- 
al truths and to offer the green fruits of ignor- 
ance, inexperience, and heathen philosophy to 
satisfy the spiritual craving of men and women 
offering their lives as sacrifices for the good of 
humanity and the future welfare and peace of the 
world. If I may now offer, as a humble servant 
of God, the rich ripe fruit from God's own Word, 
rightly interpreted and properly applied, in these 
perilous times for the faith of men, I will ever 
thank God for my prayer's answer for the privi* 

27 



lege of so great a service. If I, can, through this 
service, provide comfort to any perplexed soul, I 
will thank God for the blessing of sharing that 
comfort which the thoughts of this discourse 
have brought to me. I do this through no spirit 
of presumption but upon the conviction that the 
supreme need of man everywhere is God in Jesus 
Christ. Notwithstanding that Jehovah nerved 
the army of Israel in battle and that Christian 
nations are now engaged in the most colossal war 
of ail time, with all reverence and due considera- 
tion, I assert that war is wrong, upon my faith in 
the immutablity of this truth of God, ' ' Thou shalt 
not kill.'' 

War may be wrong for all combatant nations 
and yet right for God, for the reason, that the re- 
lationship between men and nations is different 
from that between God and individual men and 
God and nations. God's authority over man is 
absolute, whereas that of man over his fellow man 
is necessarily limited and conditioned by this ab- 
solute authority of supreme sovereignty, for ^^all 
power is of God." He has the right to punish 
with the sword or otherwise one or all the nations 
at war for the abuse or failure to rightly employ 
this power. 

I assume every one here to-day to be normal. 
If I am correct in this assumption each one is op- 
posed to war. Our Christian President, Woodrow 
Wilson, resorted apparently to every honorable 
means to avoid involving our nation in this awful 

28 



orgy of blood, and every right minded human be" 
ing is averse to war, primarily because it involves 
the taking of human life. 

War is wrong because it necessitates the kill- 
ing of man by man. The fundamental right of 
man is to live, to enjoy his life of liberty and 
equality in pursuit of happiness, and to partake 
of the fruits of his labors, ever mindful of his obli- 
gation, God imposed, in ^'The Grolden Rule," to 
respect the same rights in all others. In the mu- 
tuality of recognition and observance of this obli- 
gation lies the security of this fundamental right 
of individuals and nations. But war necessitates 
its disregard and is therefore fundamentally 
wrong. To the soldier at war who witnesses — I 
might say experiences — the destruction of life 
and property and the suffering of women and chil- 
dren, the aged and decrepit, that soldier, without 
any deliberate process of reasoning, is immedi" 
ately conscious of the fact that it is all wrong. 

God has decreed the killing of man by man 
a sin, and man himself has declared it in his laws 
a crime penalized by forfeiture of the life of the 
offender. Some unmindful of this sin and crime 
and of the sober intelligence of the American peo- 
ple have suggested, for '^ draft purposes," that 
the commandment: ''Thou shalt not kill," be 
temporarily eliminated from the decalogue. Such 
self deception is diabolical. This commandment 
is not confined to the printed page. It is the will 
of God and written in the flesh and mind and 

29 



sjjiiit of man. Let no mental superficiality and 
moral cowardice prompt the hiding NOW of this 
eternal, immutable truth of God, inseparable from 
the life of God, coeval and coextensive with God 
Himself. It is the will of God, the love of God, 
concerning the life of man to preserve it. Let no 
creature of time, deny it, or disturb it in its God- 
appointed place in His law. 

The supreme meaning and our purpose in this 
war, and its most lasting impression upon the 
race will be that war itself is wrong and must be 
prevented. The Allies are at war fundamentally 
and primarily to prevent w^ar because it is wrong 
for men of the Prussian Empire to take the life 
and destroy the earnings of the life energies of 
the people of Belgium and France. 

^'All men are of one blood'' and ^^made in 
the image of God" and when one human being- 
slays another he mars the unity of the race and 
the image of God, and does violence to his own 
soul. God gave life. His life, to man to live it. 
God gave life. His life, in Jesus Christ, for man 
to redeem man's life that he might live it and 
live it forever. Through no personal sacrifice of 
one's own life, in any cause, but through this 
grace of God, in Christ Jesus, this eternal life is 
the gift of God to man. 



30 



CHAPTER IV. 

America's Justification in Entering 

the World War 

I have served my country as a soldier; I re- 
joice in its history of noble achievements; I cher- 
ish its traditions, and respect the emblem of its 
gracious power; and I love the people who have 
made and are maintaining this beneficent gov- 
ernment of the United States of America. I am 
therefore not satisfied to take for granted, or as- 
sume her justification in this world war, but T 
would know it and the reason for it. 

America, though not perfectly conscious of 
the fact, is fighting to destroy war because it is 
wrong, and in vindication of the integrity of the 
universe involved in obedience to this command: 
*^Thou shalt not kill.'' It appears that this will 
be one good God will bring out of this evil — war 
— which was not of our making, thank God, and 
with it the conviction that every man is a part of 
the universe of moral and spiritual order divine- 
ly designed for peaceful progression. God's hand 
is still at the helm in the affairs of men. 

America's justification lies not in the purity 
of her motive, though that, from a human point 
of view, none may justly impugne, for no human 
motive can justify war, but in that she is the in- 
strument in the hand of God to punish the wicked 
who would make war, to prevent the darkness in 
which Germany would force the race to stumble 
on through a Christless ''kultur," to its doom, 

31 



and that this world may have light and life in 
Christ. As the light of day fixes the image on the 
plate, so the perfect light of God's love, in Jesus 
Christ, alone can bring out the image of Grod on 
the negative of human nature. 

CHAPTER V. 
Conclusions 

War as a judgraent of God is right, but as a 
human condition is wrong, for the wrong human 
condition brings the just judgment. God takes 
no pleasure in the punishment of the wicked, and 
that which provokes God's displeasure is wrong. 

Economically war is wrong because it lays 
waste and destroys life, and the works of the 
hand of God and man. 

The law of self defense is one expression of 
the democratic principle of the sovereignty cf 
the individual. 

The soldier is accountable to God for his 
sins at every stage of his service. 

• ^ . . . The wrath of man worketh not the 
righteousness of God," yet God has by the bat- 
tle's lurid lights revealed to this generation life's 
spiritual values. With this vision, reason and 
the Christian religion must concur and co-operate 
in every life in order that it may attain its high- 
est, noblest, and most useful culmination. Chris- 
tianity is progressive. Its principles are eternal 
and adapted to the greatest possible human ad" 

32 



vancement. Designed for that end the applica- 
tion of these principles is the only means of con- 
tinuous physical, mental and spiritual progression. 

Our government, until recent years, has been 
an experiment where God and the Bible occupied 
a conspicuous place in the education of the peo- 
ple. Leaving God out of the education of the 
child and youth is an experiment that is even now 
producing alarming symptoms. In our republic 
the citizen is both the sovereign and soldier, and 
Godless sovereigns and soldiers delight in blood 
and tyranny. Some wise man has said: ^'It takes 
a hundred years to make a scholar." A longer 
time then must be required to test a system, of 
education. Education is preparation for life and 
no one is prepared to live without a knowledge 
of God in Christ. 

Our constitution guarantees that all beneath 
the stars and stripes may worship God according 
to the dictates of conscience. The conclusion that 
any than the ^^only true and living God" and 
^^ Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" 
was that God in contemplation is foreign to the 
intent of those who drafted the Declaration of In- 
dependence and who framed the constitution of 
the United States. Those who inscri])ed this 
guarantee at the threshold of the temple of De- 
mocracy did not dream that an educational sys- 
tem would be devised or permitted by American 
citizens which would deprive the children of the 
United States of America of learni^jg of the 

33 



God they reverenced, worshiped and trusted, and 
from off Whose altar they brought the sacred fire 
of liberty to enlighten the world. "Lest we for- 
get," I reiterate that a general system of educa- 
tion where 75 per cent, at least, of our people re- 
ceive their only "schooling," cannot show its 
full effects in less than one hundred years of trial. 
Bolshevism, German Socialism, Mormonism and 
Kussellism, Eddyism and other "isms" of a po- 
litical, social and religious nature are manifesting 
themselves and heathen altars and temples dese- 
crate American soil. A Godless school is the in- 
cubator of anarchy. Christianity, if hostorical 
data furnish reliable basis for conclusion, is the 
only effective preventive of chaotic condition in 
the political, social and religious realms. There 
is no place for chaos, and anarchy with its red 
emblem, in God's government of this world, and 
He will govern it to the end. 

Man was created by God to live, propagate, 
and preserve life and not to destroy his own life 
or that of another. The conditions with which 
the Christian must comply, as a soldier, are al- 
most impossible with man, and only possible with 
God in man. War is a judgment of God upon the 
wicked. God takes no pleasure in the "judg- 
ment" death of the wicked. It causes a displea- 
sure to God and is wrong. This judgment may bo 
visited at the same time upon all the nations in- 
volved in war and the only possible good that can 
come out' of war under such circumstances is th^it 

34 



which God in his infinite wisdom, mercy, power, 
and love brings from the evil thing. These facts 
compel the conclusion that war is wrong. The 
life of Christ is the perfect life. Israel was storm 
swept and the heathen raged but His was a life of 
peace. The church is not a building, or human 
organization. The church is an organism of liv- 
ing functions. Christ is the Head of this living 
body and the individual believers in Christ are 
the members united in this body. The Church 
on earth, in this proper sense, is the normal life 
of the race and Hate and his bloody brood have 
no part in it. Bloody revolutions are not dyna- 
mics of political, social or religious progress. 
Progress is not the product of revolutionary wars. 
Such revolutions are evidences of opposition to 
progress in the direction of human good and are 
the symptoms of doing evil. And progress has 
been made in spite of revolutionary wars. 

The present war was not necessary for pro- 
gress. It denotes Prussian opposition to Chris- 
tian advancement under ' ^ democracy. ^ ' It like- 
wise proves the failure of nations, professedly 
Christian, to prevent this cataclysm. We are 
only possessors under God's ownership. Billions 
of dollars and millions of men are being spent in 
the prosecution of this war. In this estimate we 
take no account of what w^ill have to be expended 
as its consequences. Had the church possessed 
the faith, courage, and zeal of the apostles, and it 
should have had; had these men and this money 

35 



been available to such a united Church, and they 
should have been; and had such a church em- 
ployed such resources for righteousness this war 
could not have occurred. For this reason this war 
is wrong, and the responsibility is more universal 
than is generally admitted. 

A nation at war, used as the avenging sword 
of God, as such, is committing no sin, yet the na- 
tion as a nation may be sinful, and bleeding be- 
cause of its sins. The weapons of war are instru- 
ments for punishment of evil doers and war is the 
condition prevailing during their employment. 
War is therefore an abnormal condition and if 
general and continuous would result in the exter- 
mination of the human race and such a condition 
is wrong lest man conclude he has no right, as a 
race, to live, and in this he must needs oppose 
God and find his conclusion false. 

I have undertaken to show America's justifi- 
cation in entering this war and that war itself is 
wrong. America's justification lies in her divine 
employment as a means to preserve and extend 
righteous human government and to destroy 
war. If my conclusions be correct and it be true 
that democracy is Christianity's highest political 
expression, then when, national and international 
democracy prevails throughout the earth wherein 
Christian principles are recognized, as such, and 
applied, though Christianity may not become uni- 
versal, yet it will prevail and predominate and 
the Christian majority of one Christian democra- 

36 



cy will not by voice or vote declare war against 
another Christian democracy and war will cease. 
The Church of Jesus Christ must Christianize the 
persons and peoples of the world before human 
governments shall thus express and execute the 
will of God. Christ is the foundation of our peace 
and the glory of our hope. Christ proved the 
Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man 
in a unity of universal family relationship. He 
likewise proved that all '^powers that be'^ are of 
God, and that God is no respecter of persons, 
hence, all men are equal before God and the law 
of man. The will of man is a law, though not the 
highest, of his temporal and eternal destiny. 
Fi'om these facts it appears that God created man 
free, and in His plan to redeem man from the will 
of the devil back to willingness to do the perfect 
will of God, God has disciplined this creature of 
His love in Egypt and Babylon, and tutored him 
in '^the Wilderness,^' and in the kingdoms of 
many lands, that he might again become self-gov- 
erning in an autonomous state, or ''democracy.'' 
With Christ the founder, democracy can derive 
none of its principles nor exercise any of its just 
powers, outside of Christianity. In this autonom- 
ous state, which is named ''democracy,'' the will 
of the majority of the people, expressed by their 
votes, is sovereign. The logical conclusion as 
well as the democratic doctrine is, war should 
never be declared nor the sword drawn by a self- 
governing people without their wills freely ex- 

37 



pressed in press, voice, and vote. As one good 
out of this evil, I believe tlie ' ' Allies ' ' as the ' ' min- 
ister,'^ the '^revenger," the ^* sword" of God 
should drive these enemies of self-government, 
these enemies of simple Christian faith and prac- 
tices, across the Eliine, and with unsheathed 
sword, and fixed bayonets, under the allied flags, 
hold the defeated enemy at bay until the peoples 
of the Prussian Empire and its dependencies may 
unintimidated and unafraid set up governments 
of, by, and for the people, thus saving them from 
the chaos of anarchy, saving them to Christian 
civilization, and preventing them remaining a 
further menace to the peace of the world. Until 
then the task we undertook is unfinished and the 
world is unsafe for democracy. 

This war has demonstrated that no diabolical 
agency can destroy the power of God on earth and 
that preparedness for war does not prevent war 
but precipitates it psychologically as well as 
physically. War can be prevented only through 
the personal acceptance of Christ as Savior by a 
predominant number, and by national practice, 
and international application, of Christian prin- 
ciples. Then and not till then will peace prevail 
upon the earth among the nations. In the great 
council of the nations, at the end of the war, the 
supreme issue will not be repairing damage done 
— that is impossible — nor will it be occupied with 
holding an inquest over that great part of the hu- 
man race sacrificed in making such a conference 

38 



possible. When these plenipotentiaries are called 
together there will be among them men of moral 
courage and spiritual vision with wisdom to de- 
cree, in unity of covenant, that war is fundamen- 
tally wrong and hereafter, as long as the race of 
man dwells on the earth, war shall be condemned, 
prohibited, and prevented, thus approximating in 
our crude state and environment the ideal state of 
divine design in which God shall gather together 
in one all things in heaven and earth in Christ. 
The nations which shall be represented at the 
great international council table, when their work 
there will have been finished, must have the unit- 
ed support of the revived. Spirit vitalized Church 
of Jesus Christ, or their plans and purposes for 
permanent peace will fail, because of the lack of 
the only force that can function in universal peace. 
The decree of this international court will be 
Christian cizilization's verdict: WAR IS WRONG 

''To the only wise God, our Savior, be glory 
and majesty, dominion and power, both now and 
forever. ' ' 

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